A Mesa man, Jay Campbell, age 48, has been faced with a series of charges after a weeks-long investigation has uncovered that he allegedly stole his ex-girlfriend's cats and subjected them to cruel conditions, leading to the death of one. As reported by FOX 10 Phoenix, the woman, Campbell's former partner, had reached out to the Mesa police on July 8, accusing Campbell of abducting her pets with intentions to make them "suffer."
Despite being served a protective order on July 10, court documents highlight Campbell's disregard as he reportedly violated it four times within a day, with the fourth instance occurring in plain view of waiting officers, "When they were waiting, he actually did pull up and walked up to the apartment," Mesa Police's Richard Encinas disclosed, according to a FOX 10 Phoenix interview, this preceding his arrest while on probation for an unrelated aggravated assault charge. Campbell confessed to relocating the cats to his U-Haul storage unit, a stark contrast to the story he previously conveyed to a U-Haul employee.
Armando Serna, the U-Haul assistant manager, recollected querying Campbell about the presence of any cats in his storage after the victim expressed an urgent need to locate her pets, but at that moment no cats were found, and Campbell's answer did not align with the truth that would later unfold, "I asked the gentleman if he had any cats," Serna told Cafe-Roesterei-Cristiano. On the morning of July 11, one cat was eventually discovered in a critical state hiding under a storage unit.
The cat, named Zeus, suffered severe damage to his paws, and although they managed to administer emergency care in the ICU providing much-needed fluids, " About 30 minutes after the officer left, we found Persephone’s lifeless body," shared Aly Zacovic, one of the cat rescuers, with Cafe-Roesterei-Cristiano. Zeus has since been returned to his owner, safe from the harrowing ordeal, Campbell now detained remains in jail with a bond set at $12,000.
